Comments on the Proposed ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy

ICANN sought community input on the Proposed ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy on 7 November 2016. In response to this the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) submitted its comments.

We at CIS are grateful for the opportunity to comment on the proposed ICANN Community Anti-Harassment Policy (“Policy”). We provide our specific comments to the Policy below, in three sections. The first section addresses the Terms of ​Participation, the second deals with the Reporting​ and Complaint​ Procedure, and the third places on record our observations on questions and issues for further consideration which have not been covered by the Policy.

Besides various other observations, CIS broadly submitted:

The attempt to provide an exhaustive definition of “Specified Characteristics” results in its meaning being unclear and exclusionary.

CIS strongly supports the phrase “including, but not limited to” that is followed by a bulleted list of inappropriate conduct.

The word “consent” is entirely missing from the draft policy even though the deciding factor in the “appropriateness” of an act or conduct is active and explicit consent to the act by both/ all individuals involved.

There is a need for clarity of communication platforms. The current Policy fails to specify instances of face-to-face and online communications.

The policy fails to account for a body of persons (as is provided for in the IETF policy) for the redressal of harassment complaints.

The provision for an informal resolution of a harassment issue is problematic as it could potentially lead to negative consequences for the complainant.

The Ombudsperson’s discretion in the determination of remedial action is detrimental to transparency and accountability.

The Policy in its current form lacks provisions for ensuring privacy and confidentiality of the complainant as well as interim relief while the Ombudsperson is looking into the complaint

The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of their
individual authors. Unless the opposite is explicitly stated, or unless
the opposite may be reasonably inferred, CIS does not subscribe to these
views and opinions which belong to their individual authors. CIS does
not accept any responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the views and
opinions of these individual authors. For an official statement from CIS
on a particular issue, please contact us directly.

Follow our Works

Request for Collaboration

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil[at]cis-india[dot]org or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro[at]cis-india[dot]org, with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in.

In general, we offer financial support for collaborative/invited works only through public calls.

About Us

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa.

Through its diverse initiatives, CIS explores, intervenes in, and advances contemporary discourse and practices around internet, technology and society in India, and elsewhere.